Channing Tatum Planning His Debut in the Director’s Chair

Scoot over Scorsese, there’s a new sexiest director alive: Channing Tatum is headed behind the camera.

The Foxcatcher star will not only direct and produce a screen adaptation of the YA novel Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, but is expected to also star in the film, playing a heroic high school teacher. For his first foray behind the camera, Tatum is teaming up with Reid Carolin, who has produced most of Tatum's recent movies, including Magic Mike and 22 Jump Street. Carolin will co-direct the feature, and produce.

Tatum has a busy slate ahead of him: His drama Foxcatcher just opened ([read our review here] (http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/channing-tatum-foxcatcher-review)), Magic Mike XXL just finished shooting, he is set to play Gambit in the forthcoming X-Men movie, and his futuristic drama Jupiter Ascending opens soon.

As for the story, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a chilling tale of a tortured and mentally unstable high school student planning to kill his former best friend in a murder-suicide. It's dark and harrowing and subject-wise just about as far as one can get from, say, Step Up 2: The Streets, which is further proof of Tatum’s interest in being taken seriously as a Hollywood player.

This isn't the first time that Quick's novels have been adapted for the screen. He wrote the book The Silver Linings Playbook, which garnered both Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper Oscars for their work in the film version. Quick has since been in-demand as a script source and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Quick’s still-unreleased novel, Love May Fail, is already being adapted for the screen by Mike White with Sam Raimi attached to direct.